All around them people—prisoners and visitors alike—were craning closer, trying to understand the source of thecommotion. Eli was looking at Nathaniel. For permission, perhaps? But the permission had been given long ago, and all that was left was impatience. “Say yes already!”
And Eli did, his eyes warm as he gave over his hand to slide the ring into place. Samuel hoped nobody noticed the tremor in his hands. He did a good job, he thought, of climbing to his feet, natural and unrushed. The casual end to his little joke. Only it wasn’t the end, because Nathaniel seized him by the front of his jumpsuit and hugged him close. “Thank you.” And Samuel was shocked by the fervor in it, flustering him worse than the fake proposal had.
“I’ll protect him,” he blurted. The situation deserved something more, but he wasn’t sure what. Maybe Nathaniel knew, because as he pulled away, the man clamped down on both sides of his face, and with those crazy burning eyes, added, “I love you for this,” and kissed him. Right there on the mouth, in front of prisoners, visitors, and husband all.
It must have shorted out his brain, because he just stood there, staring at Nathaniel, like he’d just fallen from outer space. And then an arm snaked around his waist. A warm arm. A strong arm. “Laying hands on my husband already, Pearson?”
A small crowd had gathered, but Samuel was only vaguely aware of them—the two of them. A whole world. Nathaniel slid a hand onto the back of Eli’s neck. “What’s yours is mine, isn’t that right?”
Eli made a small sound in the back of his throat, something like agrowl, and yanked his husband forward. Nathaniel’s body collided with Samuel’s, sandwiching him between them. Samuel opened his mouth, to say what, he wasn’t sure. Maybe a plea to be released, or a reminder about the COs who wouldn’t take kindly to this. But he didn’t speak fast enough, because Nathaniel raised himself up on his toes, and kissed his husband over Samuel’s shoulder.
Nathaniel’s hair was brushing his neck, and part ofthat jaw was pressed up against his face, but even more overwhelming was the crush of their bodies. Nathaniel had fistfuls of Samuel’s jumpsuit in his hands and the whole of him was pressed up against him, aided in part by his husband’s hold, but also his straining enthusiasm to be closer, to be with the man he loved, except Samuel was in the way. Why was he in the way? And as if that wasn’t enough, Eli—allof Eli—was at his back. Every bump and line of him.
It should have terrified him into shoving them both down and running. Instead came an undeniable fascination. Already he could feel Nathaniel’s cock waking up. It was smaller than Eli’s. Safer. And it wasn’t meant for him, anyway, even though it was pressing into his thigh. No, it was for Eli, who seemed to sense his husband’s desire, even if he couldn’t feel it, and crushed him still closer, heedless of the 200-pound barrier blocking him. The kisses became hungry,starving. Samuel found his hands jumping up to steady Nathaniel as he surged forward, but if he thought the foreign touch would bring the man back to his senses, he was sorely mistaken. Nathaniel seemed to take the support for granted, or perhaps he just hadn't noticed it at all. “Please,” he gasped into Eli’s mouth, and, by proxy, into Samuel’s ear. “I need—”
Samuel knew exactly what the man needed, since Nathaniel’s hips were making it abundantly clear, seeking friction and satisfaction. And he wasn’t the only one. With a groan, Eli’s arm left his waist and came up to clutch at Nathaniel’s face, kissing him, and kissing him, until thewhackof the truncheon that Samuel felt like an echo, vibrating through Eli’s body and into his.
There was a jerk, and then a truncated and altogether distinctive grunt of pain, and already Nathaniel was coming to life with the realization of what had happened. “Son of a bitch, did you really just—”
Samuel was already pushing him back into safety. Hissister’s arms. “Get him out.”
“Be safe. Don’t fight.” Jenny’s words were barely constrained panic as Samuel’s arms were yanked behind his back. Eli had already been hauled off.
“Sammy—!”
“Fine. I’m fine.” But his assurances were perfunctory. He was already swiveling his head toward Eli. They had to stick together.
“Let go. He didn’t do anything wrong! Let go!” Nathaniel wasn’t hiding his panic well. He’d slipped Jenny’s hold and was trying to make his way back to his husband, his outstretched arm going over the CO who was trying to keep him back. “Don’t hurt him! You’re hurting him!”
Eli was already being frog-marched back toward the gate, but he twisted his head around to shoot a reassuring smile his husband’s way. “Love you, Than.”
But Nathaniel wasn’t reassured, especially when Eli got another whack with the truncheon. Samuel too was receiving the royal treatment, but he didn’t feel it. His vision had narrowed to that truncheon. He imagined snapping it across his knee.
“Hit him again, Jameson,” he said, and it was in that voice he didn’t recognize. “I dare you.”
Someone kneed him in the back. He didn’t know who was holding him, and it didn’t matter because it wasn’t going to stop him. When they were shoved through the gate, that should have been the end, but it wasn’t. Jameson lifted the truncheon again. It was all Samuel needed.
He broke out of the CO’s hold, ripped the weapon from the man’s meaty hand, and flung it into the gate with a clang like a gunshot. He was going to beat the man until he was pulp on the wall. Hewantedit. Was lookingforward to it.
A hand seized his arm. “Puppy, don’t—”
Samuel shrugged him off. He’d just seized hold of Jameson’s shirt, his fist drawn back, and was snapped taut as 50,000 volts of vicious electricity shot into his body from the four small electrodes stuck into his back.
Tased.Again.
It was worse knowing what was coming—the horrible crunch when his body would met the floor, his muscles immobile. Then would come the interminable wait as he spasmed and spasmed, the scream in his throat, cut off and frozen. But there wasn’t a crunch. Someone had caught him, and then, a brief eternity later, even the spasming was interrupted as the line broke, his body becoming his own once again.
The stun gun was on the floor, as was the CO it belonged to. Eli dropped to his knees on the floor beside him. “Samuel,are you alright?”
The tremors were still there, and he didn’t feel confident enough yet to speak, but he made a clumsy grab and managed to get a hold of Eli’s jumpsuit.
When he tried to sit, Eli stopped him. “Not until you’re steady.”
But he fumbled some more, pushing his hand up to Eli’s shoulder where the truncheon had hit hardest. His words and mind were still jumbled, but he managed the words. “Hurt you?”
“This? Please. Hailey hits harder when I give her movie spoilers.”
Eli’s tone was light, but his eyes and face were cracking with worry. It bothered Samuel to see it there. It bothered him a lot. He tried to sit up again and this time he insisted, fighting the resistance, and pulled the neck of Eli’s shirt aside. The skin there was warm and beginning to swell. “Ice,” he said, his reason returning. “Norm can give us. Or the clinic. Clinic’s closer. Can you—”
